Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid

[Athenian200]

Schematics of pyramid

Wikipedia article

I heard about this on the Discovery Channel a long time ago. Supposedly this is a future solution to transportation and space issues. The construction would involve some very strong but flexible things called "carbon nanotubes" or something to make it light enough to work, and there would be some kind of internal transport system that operated automatically.

So, do you think this is just a pipe dream, or the future of construction and transportation? What would be the implications of it?

 

[runvardh]

Nice, I was reading up on carbon nanotubes, neat stuff if you ask me. Depending on their length they can either be a conductor or an insulator and can be used like field effect transistors by exposing one part to oxygen and shielding the other side from oxygen. Another property I found neat was how high it's tensile strength is; I could see the stuff starting to replace steel cabling in 50 - 60 years. That reminds me, my dad told me to look up what companies are working on the stuff for investment purposes.